Congratulations to our editor-in-chief, Mia Dove, for being named the 2026 Maryland Student Journalist of the Year!
Every year, the Maryland-DC Scholastic Press Association, or the MDCSPA, holds a contest for high school students (juniors and seniors) to become Maryland’s student journalist of the year.
Founded in 1908, Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland created the Maryland-DC Scholastic Press Association, a non-profit organization that works in partnership with the journalism college that is at the University of Maryland. Their purpose is to promote and support scholastic journalism around Maryland and Washington, D.C.
The Philip Merrill College of Journalism is ranked among the top journalism schools, including No. 2 by course advisor, No. 3 College Rank, No. 4 by Universities.com (2024), No. 5 by Intelligent (master’s, 2025), No. 5 by CollegeVine (2024), No. 5 by Transizion (2024), No. 6 by College Factual (2025), No. 6 by CollegeRanker (2024), No. 6 by Successful Student (2024), No. 7 by AP Guru (2021), No. 8 by College Transitions (2025) and finally, ranking No. 16 among its Best Universities for Journalism and Digital Media in the World (2025).
They develop journalists and media scholars with reporting, research, training in analytical skills, ethics, and the practice of our First Amendment rights. Throughout the year, they provide professional development and hold training opportunities for middle and high school students and media/journalism advisers.
Mia Dove
Mia is a senior; she first started having an interest in journalism in her sophomore year. She saw an advertisement to join The Buzz (which, at the time, was a club rather than a class).
“I was like, man, I really like writing [and] I’m good at writing… So why not try this out?” She said, “I went to a meeting, and I realized I really like this… I like being able to talk about current events, and I like to talk [about] important topics that affect people outside of school.”
Dove said that when she first joined, she was more centered around current news and current events, “It was around the time of a lot of the antisemitic protests that were going on… And being a Jewish person, I was very interested in the reasons behind them… I talked more about politics and current news when I first joined.”
The process of submitting your work to earn this reward requires an online portfolio for the judges to review based on a rubric that covers many common skills journalists should possess.“The way the nomination process works is you have to submit a portfolio of your work with personal statements about each of your works that you submit… I submitted it, not thinking anything about it,” Dove explained.
When asked how she feels about being named 2026 Maryland Student Journalist of the Year, she said, “I definitely feel so overjoyed,” she continued, “Just the fact that this is something I want to do for the rest of my life and being able to win an award saying I’m really good at it reaffirms me that I’m making the right decision for my future job…”
One piece of advice she has for younger students who want to take the same path as her in journalism, Dove advises, “If you can sit down and write three pages, two pages, [or] maybe even one page of any topic you’re interested in… and you don’t despise the time you’re sitting down and writing…” Dove paused, “[Then] this is a good path for you … I would say to a lot of people, just don’t give up on your writing. Even if you’re getting a lot of critiques from teachers, that’ll all help you in the future.”
For younger writers at school, Dove’s journey shows that a simple interest in writing can grow into something much bigger. What started as a student seeing an advertisement for The Buzz and deciding to attend a meeting eventually turned into a passion for journalism, allowing her to write about current events and important topics that affect people outside of school. Now, being named Maryland’s 2026 Student Journalist of the Year shows how far that interest in writing has taken her. Congratulations to Mia!
